Marc-André Gauvreau has always dreamed of making his own beer, but he never thought he'd be making beer that fights climate change! But that's exactly what he's managed to do in his small business.
Founded five years ago by Denise Mérineau and Marc-André Gauvreau, partners in business and in life, Brasseurs de Montréal is a microbrewery-restaurant in Grintown, now expanding to welcome the neighborhood's future residents. Ellio caught up with Marc-André to find out more...
Our company philosophy is first and foremost one of technological development, aimed at eco-efficiency and product standards. This focus on rigor and innovation has given us ideas for greener production.
One day, I struck up a friendship with one of our restaurant's clients , an engineer and founder of a company called OCO Technologies. After talking to him about brewing, OCO came up with an idea for capturing the CO2 released during fermentation. The engineering firm developed the technology and filed a patent. When they were looking for a place to test their pilot, we answered the call.
Capturing CO2 would prevent it from being released into the atmosphere. The sensors are currently being manufactured and should be installed this autumn. We haven't yet decided how we're going to use it, but we have a few ideas. For example, we could resell this natural CO2 to tomato growers, who inject it into their greenhouses to promote fruit set.
Yes. We wanted to do it right, we didn't want anything easy or "greenwashing". OCO Technologies first did our greenhouse gas emissions inventory in 2011, including the restaurant's activities. This was followed by research and development in 2012, and an action plan up to 2016. We also purchased carbon credits for our 2011, 2012 and 2013 emissions.
I came up with the idea of purging the tanks with nitrogen rather than CO2. Together with the director of Larry Compressors, who is also one of my friends at clients , we found a nitrogen generator. This separates nitrogen from other gases in the air, such as oxygen, CO2, etc. If the results are convincing, the equipment will pay for itself in just 2 years, as I won't need to spend nearly $1,500 a month on CO2. This would save us money and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
I'd also like to recycle spent grain. To date, they've mostly gone to composting, but I could use them as biomass for a steam boiler. This would replace our consumption of natural gas, which is our biggest source of GHG emissions, accounting for 55% of the total.
Yes, we're currently working with the Conseil régional de l'environnement de Montréal and the Sud-Ouest borough to green our terrace. With the new condos planned for the neighborhood, we want to take the opportunity to expand the restaurant by adding a greenhouse with a white roof and a rainwater recovery system. The recovered water will be used to water the terrace and flush the toilets. In the style of a German biergarden, we plan to plant trees and demineralize the ground, which is currently completely asphalted.
I eat a lot of bres (laughs). It's my passion, my health. My wife Denise and I work hard and don't count the hours! My associates (employees) also have heart and work hard. I think taking on environmental projects is stimulating for them, especially as many of our employees are from the younger generation. We're also lucky to have great staff, responsive suppliers, and even engineers among our neighbors and clients. We've got it all!
We do it without obligation, it's the logical thing to do to be greener. We have lots of great ideas, but we don't want to greenwash. Of course we're going to communicate and share our actions, notably via social media, but it's not just marketing. In fact, we were expecting it to cost us more to be greener, but I realize that we're going to save money in the end!
We're not well known yet, and there's still work to be done. But I hope to be able to convince other microbrewers that new ecological ideas can save money. Once tested, we'll share our ideas with our fellow microbrewers, showing them the potential savings. I want us to prove together that even small companies with limited resources are capable of working to be greener. Let's hope the bigger ones will follow suit!
Marc-André Gauvreau has always dreamed of making his own beer, but he never thought he'd be making beer that fights climate change! But that's exactly what he's succeeded in doing with his SME. Founded five years ago by Denise Mérineau and Marc-André Gauvreau, partners in business and in life, Brasseurs de Montréal is a microbrewery-restaurant in Grintown, expanding rapidly to accommodate the neighborhood's future residents. Ellio caught up with Marc-André to find out more...
Our company philosophy is first and foremost one of technological development, aimed at eco-efficiency and product standards. This focus on rigor and innovation has given us ideas for greener production.
One day, I struck up a friendship with one of our restaurant's clients , an engineer and founder of a company called OCO Technologies. After talking to him about brewing, OCO came up with an idea for capturing the CO2 released during fermentation. The engineering firm developed the technology and filed a patent. When they were looking for a place to test their pilot, we answered the call.
Capturing CO2 would prevent it from being released into the atmosphere. The sensors are currently being manufactured and should be installed this autumn. We haven't yet decided how we're going to use it, but we have a few ideas. For example, we could resell this natural CO2 to tomato growers, who inject it into their greenhouses to promote fruit set.
Yes. We wanted to do it right, we didn't want anything easy or "greenwashing". OCO Technologies first did our greenhouse gas emissions inventory in 2011, including the restaurant's activities. This was followed by research and development in 2012, and an action plan up to 2016. We also purchased carbon credits for our 2011, 2012 and 2013 emissions.
I came up with the idea of purging the tanks with nitrogen rather than CO2. Together with the director of Larry Compressors, who is also one of my friends at clients , we found a nitrogen generator. This separates nitrogen from other gases in the air, such as oxygen and CO2,
etc. If the results are convincing, the equipment will pay for itself in just 2 years, as I won't need to spend nearly $1,500 a month on CO2. This would save us money and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. I'd also like to recycle spent grain. To date, it's mostly sent to composting, but I could use it as biomass for a steam boiler. This would replace our consumption of natural gas, which is our main source of GHG emissions, accounting for 55% of the total.
Yes, we're currently working with the Conseil régional de l'environnement de Montréal and the Sud-Ouest borough to green our terrace. With the new condos planned for the neighborhood, we want to take the opportunity to expand the restaurant by adding a greenhouse with a white roof and a rainwater recovery system. The recovered water will be used to water the terrace and flush the toilets. In the style of a German biergarden, we plan to plant trees and demineralize the ground, which is currently completely asphalted.
I eat a lot of bres (laughs). It's my passion, my health. My wife Denise and I work hard and don't count the hours! My associates (employees) also have heart and work hard. I think taking on environmental projects is stimulating for them, especially as many of our employees are from the younger generation. We're also lucky to have great staff, responsive suppliers, and even engineers among our neighbors and clients. We've got it all!
We do it without obligation, it's the logical thing to do to be greener. We have lots of great ideas, but we don't want to greenwash. Of course we're going to communicate and share our actions, notably via social media, but it's not just marketing. In fact, we were expecting it to cost us more to be greener, but I realize that we're going to save money in the end!
We're not well known yet, and there's still work to be done. But I hope to be able to convince other microbrewers that new ecological ideas can save money. Once tested, we'll share our ideas with our fellow microbrewers, showing them the potential savings. I want us to prove together that even small companies with limited resources are capable of working to be greener. Let's hope the bigger ones will follow suit!
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